The Life Taken
by The Light's Refrain
Summary: ONESHOT The world of Danny Phantom is changing, and it is striding forward to a glorious age of ghosts and men. The future is so bright, you'll have to wear shades...to see the truth.


_Hello! This has been a story that's been stuck in my head for a while. I just didn't know how to write it without it turning into a massive project I didn't need until recently. Now it's here for your reading enjoyment. While the subject is serious, I tried to have some of the usual DP humor present as well._

_For those looking this up by character catergory, you'll probably be wondering why this is catergorized under the characters it is. Keeping reading and you'll find out. It is somewhat slow and very odd. Anyone who has read A Note from the Resident will see some references to that if they squint, but you do not need to read that story to understand this one (unless you want to)._

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Where would I fit a ghost portal in my house anyway?_**

The Life Taken

She was so proud of her brother.

Jasmine Fenton, better known to the community of Amity Park as Jazz, had a lot to be proud of. She had grown from a spindly teenager who thought she knew everything, into a lovely slim woman who _did _know everything as one of top-ranked psychiatrists in the world. Such fame gave her plenty of clients and kept her busy, but it was what she had always wanted to do. Still, it was nice to go out for a walk every once and a while. Her auburn hair, tied in a ponytail, glimmered in the bright sunlight.

Jazz was not the only one who had changed over the past ten years, as she took in her modern surroundings. What was once the humble town of Amity Park had evolved into a city dissimilar to anywhere else on the planet, real or ghost. It was one of the hearts of the newest technology, as evidenced by the robots cleaning the alleys and the magnetic road-tracks that allowed magnetic cars to coast by smoothly. Mayor Tucker Foley strove for constant progress on that front. Despite common predictions, Danny's geeky friend did not marry his PDA or a robot, but an actual woman. They had two kids and a third on the way.

Yet despite all the metal and technology, plants and trees lived among and even within or on top of the buildings. It made the city look like an majestic ruin, only everything worked just fine and many people still lived within it. Almost everything the city was made of could easily be recycled or was otherwise eco-friendly. Sam Phantom made sure it stayed that way, sometimes to Tucker's vexation. But she was Sam, and she was Danny's wife, so she would have her way. Danny, Jazz's brother, who had made this whole world possible.

There they were, Danny and Sam, on the other side of the street. Danny had become muscular and much taller than Jazz, despite him being her younger brother. He was giving his son Clark a piggyback ride, the little kid squealing with delight as he flew about casually. Sam, never quite outgrowing her gothic tastes, wore a sleek black dress with black lace sleeves patterned with thorny roses. She cooed to baby Lilith in her pale arms as she strolled along, pushing her long black hair out of the little one's reach.

Then they stopped, parental gazes suddenly alert. Clark ducked behind his daddy's head, before timidly peeking around it. At first Jazz didn't understand, until she saw who was standing in their way.

She was a black woman in her mid-twenties, her own motions abruptly paused. The long black hair Jazz remembered from all those years ago had been cut short, her previously chunky body now powerful yet graceful. She appeared to be just as surprised, and cautious, as they were.

_Valerie_, Jazz thought dumbly, as shocked as her brother and his wife. Valerie, the ghost-hunter. Valerie the Phantom-hater. Valerie, the black sheep, and not because of her skin color, and who had not been seen in Amity Park for almost ten years. Not since that big fight with Danny, then the screaming match with Sam and …well, almost everyone else in town who dared to get near her. What was she doing here after she swore she would never come back?

The pariah spirit-hunter gaze soon went from startled to sharp, leering at her old foe. Danny, in contrast, looked away as if guilty. Sam, however, glared back.

The tension tightened as the silence slithered on. Then Valerie gave a huff of disgust, stomping off. Danny and Sam in turn skulked away in the opposite direction, Sam muttering angrily to Danny as she tried to calm the now-fussy Lilith.

Jazz just sighed, in both relief and worry. While she was glad a fight didn't break out, it saddened her that Valerie still held such a grudge against Danny for all these years. Couldn't she move on?

The amber-haired woman ambled away from the awkward scene, saying hello to a couple of resident ghosts as she passed. Ghosts were everywhere these days, but it did not worry her. Most ghosts were harmless, and the volatile ones knew better than to mess with Amity Park. This was the home to half-ghost world guardian Danny Fenton, otherwise known as Danny Phantom, hero of both living and non-living.

There _was_ one place that had made no progress in Amity Park, and that was Casper High School, where she and Danny and so many other now-famous people had unwilling spent four years of their lives. This was because the school had been contaminated by various negative ectoplasm thanks to the multiple ghost attacks the place had suffered. It had been scheduled for demolition. The only reason the place had lasted for this long was because many people thought the school was an important piece of history and should be preserved. This where Danny had honed his ghost-fighting skills, after all.

Danny however deemed the place too dangerous to leave standing, and had finally secured the school's destruction. Still, Jazz couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with him not liking the Casper High much in the first place. Well, it wasn't like anyone really liked the school much anyway. No big loss.

So Jazz was surprised when she spotted someone sitting at one of the weather-stained tables on the neglected school lawn. It was a young man who looked to be in his early mid-twenties, with sandy blonde hair and a lean build. He was studying the school with a distant, almost nostalgic expression in his sky-blue eyes. It was no one she recognized.

"Hey!" she called.

The fair stranger yelped, startled, and disappeared. A moment later and he started slowly fading back into sight. "H-Hey, Jazz…is your name, right?"

_Oh, so he's a ghost. That explains a lot_, thought Jazz, knowing many ghosts were drawn to old abandoned places. She began to walk down toward him. "Did you used to go here?"

"Yeah," the spirit replied nervously. "I-I'm Rene. Was just passing through with my wife, and then I decided to visit this place. Don't know why. I hated it there."

"Just like everyone else," Jazz added with amusement, sitting down across from him. "Where's your wife? I don't see her."

"Clothes shopping," Rene answered, pausing. "She's alive, so she can do that."

"Really?" Jazz asked. Though getting more accepted, ghost marriages were rare. There were a lot of arguments over whether people married in life could still be married in death, or divorced. "She must be dedicated."

"She is. She loves me for who I am," Rene replied, smiling shyly to himself. "But I leave the shopping stuff to her. I was never into it even when I was alive."

"I understand," Jazz answered with a giggle. "My brother Danny can't stand shopping trips either."

This only seemed to make the fair ghost more uneasy. "Y-Yeah. Totally not a guy thing."

"So what do you like to do then?" asked Jazz.

"Uh, well…hunting ghosts. I know that sounds weird for a ghost, but it's what me and my wife do. I know a lot of people both alive and ghost that do that. And hey, that's what Danny Phantom does too, right?" Rene replied, flashing an awkward grin. "But other than that, I like to play videogames. Watch the stars. Relax. That kind of thing."

"In other words, a quiet existence with some excitement thrown in," Jazz deduced. She was careful about using the word _life_ around a ghost. Some got upset. "So how did you two meet? Were you a ghost then?"

"No, I was still alive," Rene replied. He glanced back at hollow school. "We met here, actually."

"At Casper High?" Jazz asked.

"I, uh, yeah," he answered uneasily. "But I'm not surprised that you don't remember me. People never noticed me much."

"I think I do remember you," said Jazz.

"Really?" Rene exclaimed happily, leaning forward with excited blue eyes.

"Uh, yeah," Jazz replied, a bit surprised by Rene's sudden happiness. "Weren't you that kid that played the trumpet in the band?"

The eagerness faded from his eyes, and he wilted back into his seat. "…No, that wasn't me."

"…Oh. I'm sorry," Jazz answered quietly. An awkward silence spanned the next couple minutes. "So, tell me more about how you met your wife. She sounds like a very interesting person."

"She's amazing," Rene answered dreamily. "Well, we didn't really know each other at first. We'd be in the same class occasionally, but it was a long time before we actually got to know each other, you know?"

Jazz nodded. She knew of several romances brewing under the surface of the high school culture. She could spot the signs, having studied psychology even back then, but most people didn't, especially the objects of silent longing. Not even ghost attacks could change that.

"Took us even longer to date, and at first we didn't even really do that much at all...it's funny, we didn't really get together until…" Rene went on, before stopping. His cheery expression grew solemn.

"Until what?" Jazz urged.

"I had…a friend," he mumbled, gaze glued to the beaten table. "We were inseparable, best buddies, did everything together. But then we…grew apart. I don't even know what started it, but everything about us…changed, and it just got worse and worse, and…"

"And then what happened?"

Rene still did not look at her. "I lost my life."

An uneasy quiet followed. Only the wind offered an indecipherable opinion.

"Have you reported this to the police?" questioned Jazz seriously. "Or Danny?"

Rene stared at her like she had declared Vlad a lost hero. He lowered his blue eyes again and shook his head, turning slightly transparent. "It's…not that simple. Look, can we talk about something else?"

The auburn-haired woman frowned, but let the matter slide. It was better for Rene to talk about something like that when he was ready. "So how long have you and your wife been together?"

"About nine years," said the shy spirit. His blue eyes clouded with wistfulness as he glanced at the school again. "Man, so much time has passed. So much has changed."

"I know," Jazz agreed, turning to see the lonely shell of a building. "The future is so unpredictable. You know Dash?"

"Yes," Rene said flatly. He disappeared for a moment, and came back into view as a yellow-haired teenager built like a brick wall. "This guy-" he went on, pointing a thumb back to his shifted self "-Used to harass me and shove me into lockers all the time."

The transformation only mildly surprised Jazz, as it was an unusual but not rare for ghosts to disguise themselves. "He owns and runs a teddy bear factory now. It's just down the street."

Rene faded away and came back as his former self. He stared at her for a moment, before exploding into laughter.

"T-That, that is so…you serious?" he choked out between his guffaws. "I should have known! All those teddy bears in his closet…"

Jazz raised an eyebrow. "He had teddy bears in his closet? When?"

Rene's laughter was soon replaced by quick panic. "It-It was, uh, a dare! Yeah! I was dared to steal one of his jackets, so I snuck in and…yeah. Teddy bears everywhere. It was disturbing." He fidgeted as he smiled broadly.

"…Point is, he's actually nice now," Jazz continued. "He gives toys to orphanages, gives money to children's foundations, and is developing a program for anti-bullying."

"No way," said Rene. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," answered Jazz. "I think him having two little girls helped to soften him up. But I guess it's pretty hard to believe unless you see it yourself."

"I'm gonna hafta do that while I'm here," Rene replied, still looking skeptical. "So, how is everyone else?"

"Well, Quon is Dash's CEO," Jazz began. "Star is the spokeswoman for AllWhite Toothbrushes. Paulina is the local weatherwoman."

Rene sighed dreamily at the mention of Paulina, but hastily corrected himself.

"Tucker is the mayor. Sam is Danny's wife and is constantly involved in music and ecosystem-promoting events. Danny is…well, Danny, dealing with hostile ghosts and ghost politics. Our parents are retired ghost-hunters now, fully dedicated to pampering grandkids."

"And you?" asked Rene. "What have you been up to?"

"I'm a psychiatrist for both people and ghosts," explained Jazz. "It keeps me pretty busy, since there are so many moral issues to sort out involving ghosts. Whether heaven or hell exists and other religious issues, whether a ghost should be equal to a person in rights, that kind of thing. The revelation of the existence of ghosts and the ghost zone threw off a lot of people's original philosophies."

"And what do you think the answers to those questions are?" asked Rene, his expression serious.

"I honestly don't know," Jazz admitted, sighing as she fooled with the golden band on her finger. "There are so many opinions, and many of those opinions are relevant even though they contradict each other. It will probably take a lot more years to find answers everyone can agree on. But personally, I feel ghosts should be treated as equals to living people, and that applies to crimes they commit as well as rights. Most of them _were_ living people at some point."

Rene absentmindedly watched her tinker with the ring, until he finally realized what it was. "A-Are you married now?"

Jazz blushed and smiled a little. "Engaged. I'll be married in six months."

Rene still seemed floored by the revelation. "Engaged…Wow. I mean, wow. So much has…" He paused. "He-He better treat you right, or else I'll…do…something."

Jazz gaped at the blue-eyed ghost. It was so obvious. "…Rene, did you have a crush on me?"

"_What_? No, ew!" Rene exclaimed, sticking out his tongue in disgust. "That's just wrong! I'm…uh, just…er…" He gulped under her scrutinizing gaze.

"Rene…" Jazz began.

"Concerned! That's the word!" the spirit proclaimed with a wide smile. "Just as long as he isn't like that 13 guy and just using you for his girlfriend's sake, you know."

Jazz stared at him. "How do you know about 13? Or his girlfriend, for that matter?"

Rene slowly turned transparent under her gaze. His body rippled slightly, distorting his too-large smile and scared blue eyes. His blonde hair became splotched with a spectrum of colors, as if the hues were at war with one another.

"Rene," Jazz spoke. "Who are you really?"

Rene shut his eyes and completely vanished from sight. At first Jazz thought the spirit had fled the field, but then his guilty blue eyes appeared again. Then she realized who those eyes really belonged to.

"Jazz…" the ghost answered, his voice breaking and distorting, becoming higher and younger. "I…"

He materialized back into the view. The form he took was impossible, but Jazz knew it was the truth.

He was much younger now, maybe fifteen, and his blonde hair was now black. He wore old jeans and a white-and-red shirt. Those blue eyes were still the same, as she knew they would be.

"…Danny?" Jazz breathed.

He looked away. "Yeah?"

"…Danny, how? What happened?" Jazz whispered, before her voice began to rise. "Who did this to you? If you're here, then who has been living at Amity Park all those years? Who's been married to Sam? Who-"

"_Jazz_," Danny hissed, glancing about hurriedly. He relaxed a little upon seeing no eavesdroppers. "Look, that other guy _is _the Danny you know. The world's hero."

"But _you're _Danny!" Jazz protested.

"I'm Danny _Fenton_," the spirit corrected. "He's Danny _Phantom_. We're not the same. We never were."

"Never the same?" questioned Jazz. "As in…a split personality?"

"Something like that," answered Danny. "It started a little while after I got my ghost powers. Don't exactly know when it…well, it wasn't really a personality thing at first. More of a mindset, I guess. I didn't really realize the difference until I flew into the ghost-catcher by accident and _he_ got pulled out of me."

Jazz remembered that clunky thing, a dream-catcher-like device designed to separate ghost from non-ghost. It had been collecting dust in their parent's basement for years, too unwieldy for practical use. "Then what happened?"

"We stared at each other for a bit, and then he panicked and rejoined me," Danny replied simply. "I know I should have been more concerned that I was splitting somehow, but I was always so busy fighting other ghosts that I didn't really think about it. Besides, he didn't really feel different from me then. An alter-ego, I guess. He was always braver than I was, more selfless. He was like the hero I was always striving to be."

"He was your ideal self," Jazz concluded. Split personalities often began as idealizations or escapes that became their own identity.

"Yeah," Danny answered, smiling slightly as he thought back. "He was always there, helping me out on what to say, how to fight. Someone who understood everything about me, because he _was_ me, and so he knew how to make me a better person."

"So when did that change?" asked Jazz.

Danny's smile faded. "There's a time when everything's fuzzy for a few days, for both me and him. Sam said something about me fighting with Desiree, and that she messed me up for a while. But right after that, he suddenly got more aggressive. Wanted to do stuff himself, not just watch and advise me. Got irritated when I tried to take a break from fighting ghosts and being a hero all the time."

"And after that?"

"Then we went through the ghost-catcher again," he continued, looking up to Jazz and smirking a little. "Do you remember when you walked into my room and saw Sam and Tucker and two of me?"

"Yeah!" Jazz exclaimed. "I thought I was going nuts!"

"Well, you weren't," Danny answered. "You see, I thought that it would be great if I could be in two places at once. You know, one of me fighting ghosts and the other me relaxing with Sam and Tucker like I had been promising them for a while. So I went through the ghost-catcher and split myself…well, I thought I was just duplicating myself at the time…but I had no idea how different he would be from me. We fought with each other over everything. He even overshadowed me for a while, but I fought him off eventually. After that failed little adventure we eventually fused back together…but it was never the same."

"How did it change?" asked Jazz.

"I think it became an actual personality divide after that," explained Danny. "I started having blackouts where I couldn't remember anything, found my room rearranged, notes written in my handwriting that weren't mine. The times when we were both awake we fought for control, sometimes mentally, sometimes physically in shouting matches or scribbling back and forth on paper. It was ugly, so we saved it for late at night in our…my room."

"Danny…" Jazz murmured, unable to meet his gaze. She remembered hearing Danny yelling in his room from time to time, but assumed it was because of the videogames he sometimes played up there.

"…Do you know what the scariest part was?" he continued after a minute, his voice quiet. "Nobody knew. Nobody realized it wasn't me, because he could play me so well. Nobody noticed because…well, he's my ideal self. Not just to me, but to everyone else. He's the me that everyone prefers."

"Danny, that's not-"

"Did you know?" he interrupted, the words spat like acid, his blue eyes turned to ice.

Jazz looked down. "No…"

"I knew it," he growled, before his expression softened. "I'm sorry. Nobody figured it out, not even…"

"Sam?" Jazz ventured.

Danny sighed. "I thought she of all people would know, but…" He shifted uncomfortably, unable to go on.

"How long did this last?" asked Jazz.

"Well, it was kinda hard to tell sometimes since the blackouts went on for days or even weeks…" Danny replied vaguely. "…Anyway, it was a while. It just got harder and harder to stay in control. It got to the point where I had to fight him off even when I was awake, and I didn't always win those fights. So I started getting really scared, and really angry. I wanted it to end. So I ended it."

Jazz gasped. "You mean when you went into the inactive ghost portal and turned it on. When you forfeited your ghost powers!"

"Well, that was how I had got my ghost powers in the first place, so I thought maybe that would reverse them too. And it worked," Danny answered. "I mean, I did it to keep our parents from being arrested by Vlad's ghost hunters for harboring ghosts, but it was a last straw kind of thing too. I was sick of his presence attracting trouble and taking over my life all the time. So I did it, and he was gone. I felt like me again. It was such a relief."

Jazz did not smile, because she knew what was coming next. She had been part of it, after all.

"But no one else was happy about it," Danny muttered, his tone turning bitter again. "You guys were all mad at me for not being a hero anymore. For not being _him_. No one wanted ordinary Danny. Least of all Sam. She…She…"

He began to shake and glow green with quiet rage.

"I…I really liked Sam. I loved Sam," he murmured. "But she never loved me. She loved _him_. She made that clear when she we'd only be friends after I had gave up my powers, gave up _him_. I alone would never be good enough for her. I was just too normal. She had talked me into going into the inactive portal the first time, when it all began, for a picture, just a picture…It was only after that when she even…She _never_ loved me!"

Jazz reached over to hold his hand, only to pass right through it. Danny seemed to appreciate the gesture regardless and grew calmer. The look in his blue eyes, however, remained distant.

"But you know, I understand why you guys would be mad," her brother's spirit continued, seeming to look through her rather than at her. "I mean, those ghost hunters Vlad had were definitely suspicious. Well, anything Vlad did was suspicious, because it was, well, Vlad. And if I hadn't gotten zapped by all those ghost attacks and my ghost…_he_ hadn't been reawakened…well, there wouldn't be an earthly or ghostly world now thanks to the asteroid, would there?" He began chuckling hollowly.

"Danny?" Jazz asked with concern, moving over to his side of the table. "It's not-"

"He was so pissed," he went on, still smiling weakly. "He knew my desire to be ordinary had almost destroyed everything. We had a huge fight once all the celebrations were done. And after that, I hardly remember anything at all. It wasn't even him being stronger. I had just stopped fighting him. He was right. He had always been right."

Jazz flung herself over to embrace him, even though all she held was cold ethereal vapors. "Danny, it's okay, it's okay…"

Danny relaxed in the almost-hug. "I know. It's all in the past now. And she never gave up on me. She…"

"She?" asked Jazz. "Who is this-"

"Danny?"

Jazz turned to see a certain ghost-hunting outcast walking to the scene, apparently in shock. She quickly scanned the area for prying eyes.

"Valerie," Jazz spoke, also in shock. _She_ was Danny's wife? She knew they had liked each other for a while, but-

"Valerie," Danny echoed, starting to reform his previous disguise. "I know this is a bad idea, but me and Jazz starting talking, and then-"

Valerie laid a hand on, or rather near, Danny's shoulder before he could fully shift. "It's okay, Danny. I'm glad you're finally talking to someone else about it. Especially family. They deserve to know."

Danny smiled and nodded, relaxing a little. "Yeah. It's…a big relief."

"I can imagine," Jazz added, a strained smile on her face, her fists clenched. "I…I just wished I had realized sooner. I mean, I'm a psychatrist _and_ your sister. I should have _known_! I-I should have…" Her voice broke as tears leaked from her eyes.

"Jazz…" Danny began, reaching out.

Valerie looked down but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry," Jazz choked out, covering her face and running into the ajar doors of Casper High.

"Jazz!" both Danny and Valerie called out, following.

Jazz didn't know why she was compelled to retreat into the abandoned schoolhouse. All this talking of the known and hidden past, perhaps. She drifted through the dusty halls, recognizing old places and memories through blurry eyes. There was her old locker, the small rust stain at the left corner larger now. There was that cursed locker Danny had for a while, now almost completely corroded over. There was the science lab, complete with the robot frogs that Sam had offered in place of real frog dissection.

All over were the growing, glowing stains of ectoplasmic contamination, neon green against the dullness of reality. Nearly all the school had suffered some kind of ghostly assault at some point, and now it showed. And yet, Jazz couldn't see why this place couldn't be saved, if it was only given a little attention…

She eventually found herself in the girl's bathroom. The place was always disgusting, but now it was grotesque with its rampant mold and abhorrent stink. Almost automatically she turned the faucet handle, but of course no water came out.

The mirror before her was cracked, which did not make her frazzled reflection look any better. She thought of all the upset girls who she had stumbled upon in this restroom, her excessive make-up running. She volunteered herself as a counselor even then. Never had she herself come here for solace, her own heavy make-up smeared. When did she start wearing so much make-up? She took out some tissues and began to rub off the mess.

Jazz was just dabbing her face clean when Valerie walked in, her expression somber.

"And I thought this place couldn't get any more rank. Guess the janitors actually _were_ doing something other than playing cards all day," Valerie remarked dryly as she glanced around, before turning back to auburn-haired woman. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Jazz replied, sniffing a little. "I'm sorry. Where's Danny?"

"You think a _guy's_ about to come into the _girl's _bathroom?" Valerie asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. "Anyway, don't be sorry. It's a lot to take in. Even now I have trouble believing how much things have changed, how much time has passed. It's unreal."

Jazz nodded silently.

"You know, I didn't know anything was wrong either, after the whole Phantom Planet thing," Valerie began, studying the fractured mirror next to the one Jazz had been looking at. "I mean, I was shocked about Danny being the ghost kid, but by then I didn't hate Phantom the way I used to, and, well, I liked Danny. I mean really liked him."

"I was wondering about that," said Jazz with a impish smile. "How did it start between you and Danny? I mean, I know you two dated for a bit, but I didn't really see you guys hang out much. He was always with Tucker and Sam."

"Sam," Valerie growled, but recomposed herself. "Well, I first got interested in him when I saw him beat Dash in a fight. Well, he was actually using his ghost powers, but I didn't know that at the time and thought he was tougher than he looked. Well, he is, but anyway…well, it was the little things too. When we had that baby-stack-sitting assignment together, he helped me out by taking over my mascot job for a day, he was nice to me even when a lot of people weren't, that kind of thing. Then yeah, there was the dating, though that actually turned out to be a set-up by Technus to keep both of us busy…but the feelings they caused were real. And that's when he told me."

Jazz gasped. "About _him_?"

"Well, sort of," Valerie answered. "He didn't say it was _him_ exactly, which is probably just as well 'cause I might have blown a hole in him back then, but he did say he was having ghost problems, possession, things like that. And I swore I would help him…then Technus blew everything to hell and we couldn't date anymore. I figured that was it. Sometimes I caught him looking at me, but he kept his distance, or Sam kept his distance for him."

"But that wasn't it."

"It was for a while," Valerie replied, before her visage darkened. "I thought things were kinda weird after the whole Phantom Planet thing. Even though everything was getting better all the time, something still felt wrong about Danny. He always avoided me, couldn't seem to stand seeing me. But you know, I thought maybe it was just me being jealous. Sam was always with him, and all he saw was her, so I blamed Sam and true love."

"So how did you figure it out?" asked Jazz.

"I didn't figure it out. I found out about it from the ghosts," Valerie went on. "They knew all about it. They knew about personality splits because such tears in the soul happen a lot to ghosts, so they know it when they see it. It's not a big problem for ghosts, because they can just split entirely and become separate entities. I heard that eventually happened with the ol' Lunch Lady ghost recently. So now instead of her violent mood swings, there's now the nice Lunch Lady and the angry Lunch Lady, and each do their own thing."

"So Danny and…"

"Phantom. That's what everyone else not called Danny calls him," Valerie clarified. "But they couldn't split, because they were bound in a body. So they were stuck with each other."

"So the ghosts tried to help them separate?" asked Jazz.

Valerie barked bitterly. "They thought it was hilarious, seeing and hearing Danny and Phantom fighting with each other all the time. Most ghosts don't like either Danny or Phantom, remember, since they always bust their schemes. As for the few who didn't like it…well, by the time Phantom Planet happened he was arguably the most powerful ghost ever. No ghost could challenge him directly."

"So why did they tell you?" questioned Jazz. "Was it a good ghost that told you? Was one of the other ghosts trying to make you mad?"

Valerie shook her head. "It wasn't even that. The whole thing was amusing to them, but not that big of a deal. They didn't even realize how oblivious everyone else was to it. They just assumed that everyone in the living world knew and was just laughing about it in the shadows like they were."

"…Oh."

"So when I happened to be at a ghost hangout in the Ghost Zone - I had started going to the Ghost Zone more to avoid Amity Park - Skulker mentioned it to me casually, and it floored me. Then Skulker started laughing at my reaction, which caused the other ghosts to join in to laugh about it, 'cause they all knew. And I just sat there in shock as it was all being shoved down my throat, because I didn't want to believe, but it made so much sense."

"…And then?" asked Jazz.

"I went nuts," Valerie answered simply. "First I took up my anti-ghost weapons and completed wrecked the place and the ghosts in it. You can't really kill a ghost, of course, but they wouldn't be laughing or even moving for a while. Then I shot out on my hoverboard, out to find Phantom so I could beat the crap out of him."

"That was why you had the big fight with Dan…er, Phantom!" Jazz exclaimed. "We all thought it was because you were still mad at him for messing up your life early on."

"Yeah, I know," Valerie snarled, glaring at the mirror. "Anyway, didn't take long to find him. I demanded that he release Danny. He refused, saying his weaker self would only interfere in his grand heroic perfection and all that bullcrap. Then we started fighting. I mean _really _fighting."

A dark grin formed on Valerie's face as she remembered. It worried Jazz.

"We drew a huge crowd of ghosts. You should have seen it. Must have been half of the Ghost Zone," the ghost-hunter went on. "The cheering was split, more because they weren't sure if they hated me or him more. Didn't matter. We weren't doing this for attention. Well, maybe he was, but I wasn't. We fought on."

Valerie chuckled slightly.

"Ironically, it was Vlad that gave me the edge," she continued. "Or rather, his blueprint of an invention he was working on. Vlad definitely evil, but he was a genius when it came to technology. I found it while I was rooting around in his mansion, before Phantom and Tucker had it tore down. You know, they built a school of heroes of all things over it."

Jazz nodded, not sure whether to be amused or concerned about the school's location. Maybe it was just as well to cover up Vlad's old influence. But maybe that had nothing to do with the decision any more than spiritual infection had to do with this school being torn down. Or "Danny" suddenly throwing out his astronaut-themed items, replacing them with superhero memorabilia.

"Anyway, he had been designing these claw-like gloves that allowed the wearer to pull a ghost out of anything it possessed., including people. It was awesome," Valerie gushed, excited over the anti-ghost weapon in the way most girls were excited over shoes or baby animals. " I had made a prototype which seemed to work just fine on ghosts in inanimate objects, but I hadn't done on a living thing yet."

"So you used them to take Phantom out of Danny," Jazz deduced.

"Well, that was the plan," Valerie answered. "When I finally knocked him out with a point-blank anti-ghost blast, I swooped down and stuck the claws in him, and pulled them apart."

The ghost-hunter paused.

"But it wasn't Phantom I pulled out. It was Danny," she admitted. "Even now I'm not sure why. Maybe I put the gloves together wrong. Maybe Phantom was too dominant to leave, or Danny too weak to stay. Maybe I pulled out Danny because he was the one I really wanted. Maybe it was dumb luck. I don't think I'll ever know, or even want to know."

Valerie just shook her head.

"It doesn't matter now. The important thing is that I got Danny away from there and away from Phantom. 13 called it the "Love Story of the Century", and it stuck."

Jazz nodded solemnly. _Love Story of the Century _had become a catch-phrase among the ghosts, and now she knew why. There weren't many lovers who went so far as to literally pry the very soul of the one they loved from the clutch of the more dominant self. No wonder it irritated Phantom whenever he heard it.

"I tried to go back to Amity Park, tried to tell them the truth, but…well, you know how _that_ turned out. So we left," Valerie continued simply. "We mostly stayed in the Ghost Zone at first, since we had earned a lot of respect from the other ghosts there, but after a while we began to travel the earthly realm more too. Only places we didn't go were the polar ice caps, because it's way too damn cold there."

Jazz laughed.

"What? It is!" asked Valerie, slightly annoyed. "Anyway, it took Danny a while to fully recover, but once he did he helped me with my ghost-hunting. You know, lending his powers to me if I needed them and stuff like that. He had to learn to shapeshift for…well, obvious reasons. But once he learned that, world travel became a lot easier. It was a lot better for Danny. It let him move on, be himself."

Valerie was silent for a moment.

"…I don't know why we came back here," she added. "We weren't even really planning on it. We were going to a Stars Wars convention and we happened to be close to here, so…here we are. I'm still not sure if this was such a good idea."

"It must be painful, for the both of you," Jazz stated.

"…I thought maybe things would have changed," Valerie said, leering at the dirty sink. "I expected Phantom would be corrupted by power, exposed, and expelled, just as Vlad was. And things _have_ changed, but not in the way that I expected. Phantom didn't fall, because he never turned evil. He became exactly what he wanted to be: a true hero. He really has made the world a better place, real-side and ghost-side, and he even admitted how wrong he was when we ran into him a while back. For all he put Danny through, Danny still forgives him."

Valerie gripped the sink.

"I wanted revenge against Phantom so bad, for everything that happened, for everything Danny went through. But that's impossible now. If I tried to expose him, no one would listen any more than they did a decade ago. Or worse, they just wouldn't care. End justifies the means, and all that."

Valerie sighed.

"And even if it worked, what good would that do? Everything that Phantom has done to improve the world, which is a lot, would suddenly collapse. There would be nothing but chaos as ghosts and people start fighting again, probably worse than ever before. At one point that it might have pleased me to watch the world fall down, but Danny never wanted that. All it does is aggravate old scars, and possibly put Danny in danger."

"Valerie…" Jazz began.

"Anyway, point is, keep this to yourself," Valerie concluded, leaving the bathroom. "It's not worth the mess for a matter long buried. We want to move on."

Jazz stayed quiet as she followed. It was all so unfair, and yet Valerie was right. Revenge wouldn't do any good for anyone. Vengeful Valerie knew all about that.

Danny greeted them outside, floating over to them. "You feeling better Jazz?"

"Yeah," Jazz answered as the three of them traveled down the otherwise empty halls.

"I was just about to tell her…" Valerie began cheerfully, before pausing and grinning. "You wanna tell her, Danny? About where we're going next?"

Danny's eyes lit up like suns. "Oh yeah! You know those new space colonies they're making on the moon? We're going to be going up to live and work in them in a couple weeks."

"Really? Wow!" answered Jazz, smiling. It was a real smile, not a brave or polite one.

"Yeah, not only do I get to be an astronaut, I get to be an astronaut every day!" Danny chirped, gliding all around her in his excitement. "We might meet aliens, or discover other ghost zones! It's gonna be so awesome!"

Jazz continued to cheerfully listen to Danny's hyper rambling. Beneath the scars, he was still the awkward, childish brother she loved.

"Uh, but I probably won't be seeing you or talking to you much, Jazz," Danny added, growing more serious. "We're gonna be really busy up there, doing maintenance, experiments, exploring, making history, stuff like that. And they haven't figured out how to make the internet or cellphones work between planets yet. But they will! We'll probably help invent it!"

"I know you will," Jazz answered with a giggle. Still, she knew it would take a while. Space progress was little talked about on the news, where ghost matters hogged most of the attention. Their budget would be limited since most money was heavily invested in ghost research.

As they stepped back outside into the night, Danny reformed his disguise as Rene. He gazed up at the starry sky with the blue eyes both forms shared.

"You know, he may have taken the life that I had, but that wasn't the right life for me anyway. This was the life I wanted, and I couldn't have chosen it if none of this happened."

Valerie smiled and drew close to him, her hand mixing with his intangible one. "That's right, baby. Everything falls into place in the end."

Jazz lingered behind to watch them for a while, and then departed with a smile.

She was so proud of her brother.

_IIIIII_

_So what do you think of all that? Did Rene's identity and all the other revelations surprise you? Did they make sense? Is Phantom at fault or just a hero who made a horrible mistake in the past?_

_This fic was born from a cocktail of Phantom Planet, the episode where Danny and Valerie were dating, and the fact that I could not find a single DannyValerie that didn't end with Valerie blasting a hole in Danny's supernatural stomach XP. _

_Don't be expecting a continuation of this. I wrote it this way so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Though you're free to speculate what may or should happen afterward XP._

_I hope you enjoyed! Cya!_


End file.
